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In New Orleans, African American communities were not only hit hard by Katrina's floods, but also by violent policing during the catastrophe and a disaster "recovery" effort that was fundamentally Anti-Black (closing of publich housing and the privatization of schools and health care). Recovery efforts were not organized along ideals of racial justice that would have addressed gaps in educational and health care resources. Instead, they were imagined along neoliberal principles that systematically excluded the city's Black population. I am interested in looking into how the Anti-Blackness of Katrina "recovery" set the stage for the virulent way COVID 19 is affecting New Orleans' African American communities.

In the US Virgin Islands, Hurricanes Maria and Irma decimated what were already decrepit public school and public health systems. Public schools and hospitals had not been property repaired and remained under-supported as of early March 2020. In places like the Island of St. Croix, residents reported the hospital having only one physicial on staff, and indicated fear of misdiagnosis and prolonged waiting times kept them from seeking health care there. The clientelle of the public health system is predominantly Afro and Hispanic Caribbean. Meanwhile, US "mainlanders" (who are predominantly white) are reported to seek their healthcare off island, something only those with ample financial resources can do. Infection rates and fatality rates for the USVI seem rather low from official reports, but it is important to find out if this is because testing itself is not readily avialable in the territory.

Media coverage from hard-hit cities suggests there is a disproportionate number of arrests and citations related to enforcement of social distancing among racial minorities.

Also, police response seems to have followed very different patterns in the case of "re-open" protests and anti-police brutality protests.

The author Sonja D.  Schmid is an assistant professor at Virgina Tech. She specializes in the history of technology, science and technology policy, and social studies of risk. In respect to emergency response, Schmid has studied how agencies and personnel responded to nuclear disasters in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Schmid has written many articles in regard to emergency response and nuclear disasters her most recent being: Schmid, Sonja D. "What If There's a next Time? Preparedness after Chernobyl and Fukushima - A European-American Response." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. N.p., 01 July 2016. Web. 05 Sept. 2015

This article focuses in on the cutural beliefs that influence how a patient may interpret and relay the "narrartive" of their disease. The article shows a connection  between the physical impact of a disease on a patient, how the disease is percieved in their culture, and how they describe the disease and seek treatment for it.

This study was puplished in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology. This journal typically puplishes a variety of articles relating to medical oncology, clinical trials, radiology, surgeries, and basic research.The japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology is known for publishing high quality medical articles that relate to the Asian region.